edit I just edited the first chapter. Mostly the same, a few minor changes.
Disclaimer - If I owned any part of FFX, I would certainly have my own house and move out a s a p. I didn't write the song either. It's from House of Flying Daggers. Yes, I know I left some of it out.
Note from the Author: This is just a little story that popped into my head one day. Actually, it's an epic tale, I believe first told by Homer. I'm not certain about that, so don't get all mad if I'm wrong! Helen, the most beautiful woman in the world, runs away with the Trojan prince Paris when the gods mess with their fate. Leaving her powerful husband, Menelaus behind, Helen becomes Paris's consort. Angered at Paris for stealing his wife from right under his nose, Greek Menelaus leads a huge war on Greece that lasts about ten years. A legendary love set against the backdrop of brutal war inspired me to put a final fantasy twist on it. If you don't know much about the plot, I suggest you read up a little on it first, but even if you aren't up to that, I'll make this fic easy to understand anyway. No worries.
-liz
Yuna of Bevelle gazed longingly at the midnight blue sky, bedazzled with sparkling stars. Reaching her pale, slender arm out of the high window, she felt the balmy night breeze against her arm, a rare pleasure in her sheltered life. The strong sandstone castle that was built around her looked welcoming enough. However, she thought, if you were forced to spend every waking moment there from now until the end of her days, never setting foot outside, with no friends, and a husband you did not love…
Beautiful Yuna didn't finish her thought. Her life was supposed to be a charmed one. Prophets of Yevon had foretold her great loveliness, going into meticulous detail. It was written in the teachings of Praetor,
"A
rare beauty born in the North...
She's the finest lady on earth.
There is no city or nation that has been
More cherished than
a beauty like this…"
The prophecy had gone into further detail, describing the beauty of her bi-coloured eyes, the way the woman would win renown for her country and family. Every family had hoped that their daughter would be the one to bring fame and wealth raining down upon them. At every birth, the midwife would sing the prophecy, in hopes that it would come true. Richer families had practitioners of Praetor present at birth, just in case an official announcement that the beauty had been born needed to be made.
To be the most beautiful woman in all of Spira was the destiny Yuna had tried to fill from the time she was born. With her father in the position of High Summoner, any female child born to him would be a very wealthy debutante, thrust into high class social functions and the like. Ever since the prophecy was foretold, it was a custom among such aristocratic men to have Official Maesters, as well as the practitioner, at the birth of their children to determine if they fit the teaching, and it was no different at young Yuna's birth. Before even her Al Bhed mother could hold her child in her arms, Yuna was snatched away and examined. Her mother's cries of pain and desire to hold her child mingled with the elderly mid-wife's song. "A rare beauty born in the North…"
As her calm, wide eyes opened for the first time to reveal deep forest green and clear ocean blue, Yuna's fate was sealed.
As her mother lay dying of childbed fever, Yuna was blessed in Yevon's temple and shown to the world to be what the people were waiting for: a beauty. Just like that, for simply fulfilling some stupid mutterings of old men of foretold fairness, she was launched into a whirlwind of politics to further her father, Braska's, position in Spiran government. The High Summoner was entertaining fathers who eagerly sought Yuna's hand in marriage for their wealthy sons since she turned age eleven. The only reason Yuna would ever marry would not be for love, but for power, and her darling dad played the marriage field with the utmost cunning and look-out for his own gain. After all, what other use was there for such a pretty face?
Growing up with no mother was certainly a difficult task, but clever Braska had invited his wife's sister to live with them so there would be a female influence in Yuna's life to ensure the oracle was correct about "finest lady on Earth." Growing up solely around men would not obtain the needed elegance for the most beautiful woman in Spira.
Unfortunately, Yuna's aunt died only three short years into Yuna's life. Instead of hiring a nanny of sorts, her father instead allowed her aunt's daughter, Rikku, to stay on with them. The cousins formed a fast bond of friendship, tested so many times when Yuna was paid all the attention and Rikku was left in the shadows of Yuna's unusually bright but undesired fate.
Recalling her so-far miserable life, Yuna continued to stare out the window. Beauty is a curse, she thought bitterly. It has brought me no great joy in life to be beautiful. You'd think that a woman written about in song and Praetor and Yevon's teachings before she was even born would get the happily ever after she'd always dreamed of. Yuna heard her drunken Guado husband, Seymour, trudging his way heavily up the stairs to where she was. She had simply been a bargaining tool for her father, to gain the trust of the people of Guadosalam, whom had been feuding with her native Bevelle for ages. She was given away in marriage without any say in what she wanted, which was just as well. She didn't know what she wanted.
As the intoxicated man locked her in a clumsy embrace, Yuna froze. She hated him, her husband of only a few hours. She hated him with all her heart. She hated his arrogance, and the way he showed her off like a prize jewel rather than a person. She hated his tattooed face, cold eyes, and long nailed fingers. His shallow person only cared for wealth and power, and, although Yuna had no idea what she wanted, she knew that this wasn't it.
The choice is simple, he thought to himself. Just pick one. In a familiar habit, Prince Tidus ran his hand over the back of his hair, ruffling it slightly. The decision seemed simple enough. Each leader of the new religion had come before him and asked him to pledge his support to them, by having Zanarkand follow that religion. In return for pledging to them, what would he gain?
Nooj of the Youth League offered him three legions of machina to assist in the re-creation and restoration of Zanarkand, and help defend against invaders. Baralai, leader of New Yevon, would give the people of Zanarkand prayers, every day, and aid them in times of need. Gippal, head of the Al Bhed, was making his proposal as Tidus was thinking.
"Al Bhed's not really much of a religion," the blonde man with the eye patch was saying. "It's more… eh… how should I say this? It's more of a way of life. Granted, before the Calm, Yevon and those freaky teaching things were a way of life, too. Now," he continued on, adjusting some knobs on his machina as he spoke, "make Al Bhed a way of life in Zanarkand, a new Home and shelter for us, and we'll give you what every other man in all of Spira wants."
"What's that?" asked Tidus eagerly. He knew he should probably be a bit more careful. Gippal could be tricky sometimes.
"Just think, mate: the most beautiful woman in the entire world..." Gippal extended his arms in front of himself and made a grand sweeping motion around the throne room. "You already have all of this, plenty of machina to protect your subjects, and prayers--" Gippal kind of chuckled. "When you have the woman foretold in prophecies by praetors of Yevon before she was even born, do you really think you'll need anyone's prayers besides hers?"
He didn't want to make a rash decision, not now. His father the king had entrusted him with this task, and to mess it up would not be wise. Turning to Gippal, he asked, "How can I be sure this woman will be mine?"
Laughing more to himself than to Tidus, Gippal replied, "I think, Prince, that you'll find very quickly that we Al Bhed know how to get what we want."
It was a beautiful wedding, to be sure, Yuna thought later as she laid in bed with Seymour beside her. A true fable-like wedding, like the ones she'd wanted when she was a child, before she'd learned of harsh reality.
Braska had ordered flowers brought in from the Calm Lands, and he had the petals scattered all along the long walkway up to the highest tower in Bevelle, where she and Seymour were married. Rikku had helped her dress in her radiant white gown, with no straps, and cut short in the front. A long train trailed behind her, and it was also Rikku's job to carry it as she processed down the aisle.
"It'll all turn out all right, Yunie," Rikku had murmured softly, as she attached the feathery wings to the back of the dress. The feathers were the most expensive and luxurious in the land, plucked from the wild, dangerous white chocobo, which were only found on a certain mountain in Gagazet. Yuna sadly wondered how many ronso had died just to find feathers for her dress, and wished for the thousandth time her father had not insisted on the feathers.
Just as her Al Bhed cousin adjusted the last pin, Yuna had turned to Rikku and squeezed her in a tight hug. "I don't want to do this, Rikku," she whispered as a single, pearly tear cascaded down her cheek.
Holding her cousin close, Rikku reassured her. "Oh Yunie, it'll all turn out okay. When a girl's as pretty as you, how can it not?"
That was only a few hours before, and yet, Yuna had only believed Rikku for a few moments, it seemed. Rising from under the sheet and covering herself with a heavy robe despite the humid summer heat, Yuna walked over to her vanity, where she had placed her husband's wedding gift to her. A mirror- what a perfect present to give a wife you only saw the surface of.
Looking in it, Yuna saw herself, and wondered why everyone thought her to be so exceptional. Although seventeen years old, she was still a girl, still a child. In Yuna's opinion, there was nothing wondrous about her. Why couldn't Rikku have been the most gorgeous woman in her place? She certainly was prettier, after all, with her blonde hair and swirly green eyes. Why did destiny pick her to toy with? Seymour stirred only a few steps away, and Yuna wondered silently, was this how the rest of her life was to be?
Tears filled her eyes. Wasn't she worth more than this dull, dreary life everyone else had chosen for her? For once, just once, Yuna wanted to make a decision on her own, and take charge of her own life.
A/N: Hoped you liked it so far! A bit short, I know. Sorry. Leave me a review. Praise, suggestions, flames, and update requests are all welcome! If you're familiar with the original tale, here's the cast to help you relate:
Yuna- Helen
Tidus- Paris
Rikku- Penelope
Gippal- Aphrodite in a way/ Odysseus
Seymour- Menelaus
Nooj- Hera
Baralai- Athena
More when more characters are introduced!
liz
